Michigan State senior defensive end commits to Virginia

Michigan State will be losing one of their senior defensive ends heading into next season after he announced his commitment to Virginia on Saturday. Jack Camper announced his decision to continue his athletic and academic careers with Virginia, as he begins his fifth year of college football.

Virginia recruits Michigan State senior

“I want to thank God and Coach Elliot for the opportunity to continue my academic and athletic career at the University of Virginia,” read Camper’s official statement on his new destination.

Camper played games in all four seasons he spent with Michigan State, but his senior season saw a dramatic reduction in playing time. In his final season with the Spartans, Camper recorded just one tackle on the season after appearing in one game.

His 2020 junior season was his most productive, as he tallied 18 tackles, two tackles for a loss and half a sack in six games. Camper’s final career numbers as a Spartan was 29 tackles, 4.5 tackles for a loss and one sack in 16 games.

A 6-6, 230-pound edge rusher, Camper will bring a more veteran presence to the Virginia defense. Virginia is entering its first season under new head coach Tony Elliott, who Camper thanked directly in his announcement.

Transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be  contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.